Career Opportunities in the Home Audio field. (1 Viewer)

[James Morrison]

Just wondering what some of the career opportunities are in this field. I've been looking into the car audio field but there doesn't seem to be many jobs that I would enjoy.

Thanks,

James M.

 

[Ted Lee]

well...what do you want to be when you grow up?
just about everything can break into either retail or manufacturing.
for car audio, what immediately comes to mind includes: selling, installing, designing and consulting.
what aspects of car audio interest you?

 

[James Morrison]

Well I've allready looked into Car Audio and didn't see much that caught my interest.

I was asking about Home Audio, maybe designing theaters?

Thanks for the reply,

James Morrison

 

[Ted Lee]

well, that's a pretty technical and detailed side of ht. lots of stuff to learn there.
some concepts would include:
1. acoustics
2. construction
3. materials
4. ergonomics
5. aesthetics
so, that's a starting point. if you have any experience in any of these fields, that will help.
alternately, imo, one of the best ways to learn a subject is by doing. if you can, get a job where you'll be doing this sort of stuff...intern if you have to.
you should ask a mod to move this to the ht construction forum - i'm sure people there would have lots of good info on these topics.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

James,

I've done some work in the field, and I could give you a pretty good starting point:

1) Drive around and find one of those high budget developments of homes ($250,000+). You know, the package places where the same builder does all the homes.

2) Find out the builder (contractor) name, and call their office.

3) Find out who they subcontract to for "media rooms". Almost every company uses the term "media room"- they don't say "home theater". If they don't know, try checkin on who the contract for alarm systems.

4) Call that company, find out if they have any job openings. If not, find out who owns it and invite the guy/girl to lunch. Let them know you have knowledge in the field (say acoustic design, equipment, wiring, whatever) and that you'd be interested in working with them, even as a subcontractor on a few jobs.

Repeat this process until you have contacted all the media suppliers for your area- one is bound to need help- and especially if you are good at the whole "networking" and "selling yourself"- you should be able to find something.

Although- it sounds like you have some guidelines of what you will/won't do- it might be better off to be willing to take an entry level position and let your skills and abilities be your passport.

-Vince

 

[James Morrison]

Wouldn't it be better to get some sort of "formal" education in this? I'll be graduating high school next year & would like to go to college and study something where I would be able to work in the home theater field. Anyone here done this?

Thanks,

James

 

[Jason Wilcox]

I'll be graduating high school next year and I'm thinking about getting involved in the home audio field too. So far I'm guessing my major will be electrical engineering. Is this a good start?

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Depends on what you want to do.

I would say if you want to install HT gear- that Electrical Engineering will be overkill by a mile. If you're looking to get into really high end stuff, acoustics and acoustical engineering would be your best bet.

Almost everyone I know who does "HT" for a living have degrees in completely unrelated fields (Marketing, Sales, Business related fields). A few never attending college.

So I guess it's a question of what you want to do. Understanding of course that there is way more work for guys putting in midlevel systems in upper middle class homes than there is designing acoustic perfection from the ground up. Most of the high end business comes mostly in the form of interior design than acoustics and technology.

Unless you're a real stand out in the field, I would expect that your most likely source of work would be mostly related to sales and instalation than concepts of room design.

-Vince

 

[Jason Wilcox]

The electrical engineering degree would come in handy if I wanted to design home audio components right?

 

[James Morrison]

It would be nice to have my own business, designing theaters for people--then installing them =)


Thanks for the help,

James Morrison

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Well, I think that there is very little specific college material that can help you- beyond maybe business or marketing degrees.

Doing exactly (designing and installing) this would not be overly difficult- the biggest issue would be contacts-- who you know would be major. Your next biggest issues would be learning how to design and draw blueprints and instructions for contactors- as the biggest market is currently in new home construction.

Your best bet would be exactly as I outlined above- find out who's the main company in your area doing new home installs- and get in with them for a few years and learn the ropes. To be honest- I know several installers- and most of them know less than the people here (heck, some family friends had a system put in their million dollar home- and the whole system is wired using composite video (including DVD) feeding a mits HDTV! The guy charged tens of thousands of dollars, and the setup is a fucking joke. They got charge $900 for a phillips pronto-- and the company barely showed them how anything works!)

Getting work on that "new home" market isn't overly tough (especially approaching an established company)-- if you know the stuff. I usually get calls because I'm good at explaining concepts to customers, so I've developed a specialty that people call me for...

But again, I think if you're looking high-end market, you might shoot smaller for now. The big major companies have their pick of employees and maintain very small staff. It's like the major leagues!! Without sounding like an asshole, I know more than 9/10 of the members here, yet I would say I'm wholly unqualified to work for a major install firm (like you see in HT Interiors or on MTV Cribs)...

 

[Jason Wilcox]

thanks Vince....haha hopefully I can repay you by designing some new outlaw pre/pro later on....